Let It Snow
by Okikage
Summary: The first snowfall of winter starts, and Shark walks Yuma home through it. sharkbaitshipping


"It's snowing!" the girl in the second row closest to the window shouted with glee. Everyone turned to the windowed wall and let out a collective gasp, students clamoring over each other to get a glimpse of the fluffy white substance falling from a grey, clouded sky. Yuma began to stand up, but stalled as he turned to thin air.

"It's kind of like rain," he answered no one. Kotori looked back at him from her hard-earned spot by the window and smiled.

"Hey Yuma, if it snows enough do you want to make some snowmen?" she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, her eyes shining.

"Eh?" Yuma turned away from his invisible conversational partner. "Sure, that sounds like fun," he gave a thumbs up.

"Now class, I know you're all excited for the first snow and winter break coming up, but we need to get through these math concepts first," Professor Ukyo clapped his hands and shooed the students away from the snow-covered window.

Yuma propped his face up with his hand, sneaking a glance at the whitening outdoors with a small frown.

By the end of the day, the snow has reached ankle-height, billowing and fluffy as it continued to fall. Kotori stood just inside the school gates, bundled in a stylish pink coat with light blue snowflake designs, fluffy knitted scarf and furry light brown boots. "Where is Yuma?" she wondered to herself, patience wearing thin.

Yuma sat cross-legged in the hallway, only a light jacket thrown over his usual school-clothes. His face contorted into an angry pout. "I didn't expect it to snow today. It's freezing out there!"

He turned to the right and yelled up at nothing, "Yeah, you don't care because you can't feel it, but being cold isn't fun okay?"

Ryoga stepped out of one of the classrooms, wrapping a thin dark blue scarf around his neck. He stopped when he noticed the other boy sitting on the floor and yelling at himself. "Yuma? What are you still doing here?"

Yuma turned around, shock and a slight blush on his face. "Oh, hi Shark! I was just – trying to figure out how to get home."

Ryoga smirked as he walked toward Yuma, "And walking isn't doing it for you today?"

Yuma looked down at the ground, still smiling, "I didn't really prepare for the weather."

"I see," Ryoga unwound his scarf and threw it over Yuma's head. Yuma let out a little yelp, the scarf somehow getting wrapped around of one his red spiked bangs as he scrambled to get it off him.

"Shark, I can't take your stuff!" he got to his feet, coming up to Ryoga's nose. Ryoga merely shrugged and turned to the exit.

"I don't need it, and it seems like you do. It's mine to give away, anyway."

"Wait, Shark!" Yuma followed after him, grabbing hold of one end of the scarf and throwing it over Ryoga's retreating shoulder.

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, staring down at where Yuma stood next to him, fiddling with the other end of the scarf. "We can share?"

Ryoga sighed with exasperation, throwing a gloved hand onto Yuma's shoulder and pulling him close. "Whatever."

Yuma's heart felt like it was attempting to escape his body. Despite the cold air and wet snow hitting his face as they walked outside, he no longer felt cold at all. His arm wrapped around Ryoga's waist hesitantly, his face lighting up with red.

Ryoga glanced down at Yuma and grabbed the end of the scarf he was attempting to fray, wraping it around the bottom half of his face. Yuma pulled it down off his mouth. "What was that for?"

"The cold is making your face red," Ryoga chuckled as he stomped through the snow.

Kotori, still waiting by the gate, caught sight of Yuma's distinct spiked hair and kicked off the wall she was leaning against, preparing her best reaming for her late friend. She then noticed the he wasn't alone, instead he was walking wrapped up with another person. A person with wavy purple hair. "Oh," she mouthed before turning to run to the railway station. If that was why he was late, she supposed that was okay.

Yuma's nerves frayed incessantly as he shuffled to his house, Ryoga holding his shoulder tightly the whole way. The city sounds, cars driving by, robots working, all melted away until only the crunch of snow beneath their feet and Ryoga's calm breathing remained. Yuma stared up at Ryoga's face, the rest of the city a blur as he absorbed himself in Ryoga's eyes, his warm breath coming out in visible puffs, face set in a rare look of contentment.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Ryoga broke the silence, his gaze far away.

"Yeah…" Yuma sighed as he inched closer to Ryoga.

"I used to play in the snow with my little sister."

Yuma's brain turned on again, the world crashing down around him. "Your little sister?"

"Yes. She…was perfect. You would have liked her."

Yuma suddenly felt very, very cold, all the warmth sucked out of him. "Would have?"

Ryoga looked away from Yuma, focused on something across the street, "That's your house, right?"

"What?" Yuma looked across to see his home, "Wow, we got here fast."

Ryoga walked Yuma to his front door and finally let go of his shoulder. "Be sure to remember your own coat tomorrow, we're friends but I can't go this far out of my way every day."

"Hey Shark, do you want to hang out for a little?" Yuma stood with his back to the door and fiddled with the doorknob.

Ryoga smiled slightly, his hands sliding into his pockets, "Sure, I don't have anything else to do today."

"Great!" Yuma threw open the door, barreling into the kitchen part of the main room and pulling out an old kettle. "I'll make hot chocolate and we'll watch Ex-Mas movies and it'll be so awesome!"

"Yuma, you don't need to make anything," Ryoga shut the door and shrugged off his coat, hanging it up on the coat hanger set up by the door.

"No way, you're a guest, you're supposed to do stuff for them. Go ahead and get comfortable on the couch, kay?" Yuma busied himself with picking out the perfect two mugs from his family's collection, and rummaging through drawers until he found giant marshmallows. He poured a pouch of hot chocolate mix in each cup, then the heated up water, madly stirring it together with a random spoon he had grabbed. When he was satisfied with the mix, he stuffed 2 giant marshmallows into the mugs, almost overflowing them.

"Here you go!" he practically skipped over to the couch and handed Ryoga a mug, settling himself next to him and grabbing a blanket off the end.

"Thank you," Ryoga took a sip, his face being attacked by marshmallow. "Though I think you could have skipped the marshmallow."

"No way! You gotta have marshmallows in your hot chocolate. It's a rule!" Yuma cried out, affronted at the very thought of _skipping the marshmallow_. Yuma turned on the television to a random channel, since the vast majority were playing Ex-mas marathons anyway, and settled into the cushions.

The two watched in relative silence, Yuma occasionally piping up with an excited quip about how awesome ex-mas was going to be, or Ryoga commenting on how ridiculous the story of whatever movie they were filling the silence with was.

After a few hours, Ryoga got up off the couch and picked his coat off the rack. "I should head out now."

"But, but, we haven't even seen _Elf_ yet!" Yuma flew off the couch to stand much too close to Ryoga. "That's my favorite."

"Look, Yuma, I actually do like hanging out with you, surprising as that is, but it's getting dark and the sidewalks are going to be icy because of the weather." Ryoga pushed Yuma away lightly.

"You could stay overnight," Yuma blurted out without thinking, his eyes looking to the floor when he realized what he said.

Ryoga just smiled and ruffled Yuma's spiky bangs. "I'll see you at school, Yuma."

"Hey Shark," Yuma grabbed Ryoga's hand firmly. "I really like you."

"I like you too," Ryoga squeezed Yuma's hand. Yuma got on tiptoe and brushed his lips against Ryoga's, pulling away quickly. Ryoga took Yuma's chin with his other hand, leaning down for another kiss. Yuma pulled back and smiled up at Ryoga.

"Like I said, I'll see you tomorrow," Ryoga opened Yuma's front door and walked out into the still lightly falling snow.


End file.
